The Titan Pack and the Future of UnrealIn our latest editorial piece we look at how the recently-released UT3 Titan Pack brought more players to the community and brought UT3 back into the limelight. More >

You've seen the screenshots, now you can experience the full Unreal Engine 3 DirectX 11 GDC demo in all its HD glory, thanks to a 1080p direct-feed rip released on YouTube by Epic Games today.

The demo was powered by three high-end graphics cards running in a multi-GPU setup, so we won't be seeing games with this kind of graphical fidelity anytime soon, however Epic says these are the kinds of visuals it expects next-gen consoles to bring...

Game companies are expanding and hiring. For instance, Epic Games, which has 110 employees in Cary, wants to hire 10 more.

And gaming jobs pay well. The average salary in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, was $73,600, according to Game Developer magazine.

No wonder then that Wayne Watkins, project manager for the economic development arm of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, has been attending game conferences around the country to talk up the area and pass out maps that pinpoint 30 Triangle video-game companies, which together employ 1,200 workers. The aim is to show that the area is a video game hub.

GamingHeaven fired up a review of the recently released free Titan Pack expansion for UT3.

The Titan Pack is a great purchase, because it adds two new game modes and a ton of maps as well as a fantastic mutator system. The Titan pack also expands the replayability of the game and injects new blood into a shooter that you might not have played for quite a few months. When you consider that this is entirely free, then why are you still sitting here reading this? Join in the masses online!

Major British newspaper The Independent recently tested out OCZ's new Neural Impulse Actuator, a device which allows you to control games using nothing but your fleshy human brain.

Great for games like Pong, but what about UT?

When I fire it up in Unreal Tournament it is less simple, and I end up unable to stop myself running and firing indiscriminately. Yet it doesn't take long before I'm able to control my shooting, although precise movement is less easy, showing that the NIA clearly takes time, both for you to learn how it works and for it to learn how you work.

Although the device doesn't "read" your mind in the sense that it can understand what you are thinking, the idea is that the more you use it, the more it becomes natural and you think less about what you're doing. "It's like if a fly hits your eyelid", says Dr. Schuette. "You don't even realise there's a fly, but you know you closed your eye. It's nothing you can do on a conscious level." According to regular users, this is what happens when using the NIA – one gamer posting on OCZ's messageboard said: "I take back everything I said. The device does work... It requires exercising the mind until it is as fluid as the fingers. Yes, it could take months and probably will. It may take years, even, to reach perfection. But the opportunity is there."

Ahead of tomorrow's Titan Pack release, we have the official trailer for the pack, which showcases its massive number of new maps, gametypes and vehicles. Keep watching Planet Unreal tomorrow for the official launch announcement and all-important Titan Pack download link. Under the video you'll find a number of high definition screen grabs from the trailer showing images you might've missed as they flashed up.

The Warm Gun team dropped us a line to let us know about the latest media updates for their "futuristic wild west" themed Unreal Tournament 3 mod.

This months update for Warm Gun features a ton of concept art as well as work in progress model shots. Oh and there are some new videos to show as well. Things are going great for the team and the long awaited release is just around the corner.

First up on today's update chopping block is concept art... The 2D team has been really stepping up and laying it out, browse through the images in our mod DB profile.

There's a bunch of screenshots and a brand new video over on their ModDB page. If you like their stuff, why not consider voting for them for 2008 mod of the year.

The team behind Unreal Tournament 3 mod Renegade X has published an epic trailer and a bunch of screenshots from their mod, which looks to be coming along very nicely indeed.

This is today's main item. We've recently been hard at work getting things done, play testing alpha versions of Renegade X and recording footage. We've prepared an amazing trailer for you all, which features all of our latest content ingame. Watch vehicle and infantry battles on various maps, NOW!:

FilePlanet has posted a bunch of video tutorials from 3DBuzz, which explains the basics of creating levels and mods for Unreal Tournament 3, along with more advanced tricks used by the pros.

As part of the Make Something Unreal 2008 contest, 3D Buzz and Epic Games released these great video tutorials on using Unreal Ed to develop content for the Unreal Engine 3. This is a single video pack that combines all 3D Buzz videos on Fileplanet and has several hours of tutorials. Learn the basics of using Unreal Ed, Kismet sequences, producing animations, level design, game materials, FX effects particles and much more. These videos are tailored for new users, showing every step using the tools in Unreal Ed.

GameTrailers has some footage from the Gears of War 2 launch party, which includes some comments from design director Cliff Bleszinski. Props to BeyondUnreal for noticing this juicy nugget from Cliff relating to Epic's other franchise, Unreal Tournament...

In regards to UT it remains what to be seen what the future of that franchise is.